Arca Swiss-Compatible Universal L-Bracket
Review by Dave Williams
The QR11 2.0 L-Bracket by 3 Legged Thing is a universal system designed to simplify the process of switching your camera from landscape to portrait orientation, and it does its job perfectly. Because of this, it’s difficult to write a lot about this product to review it, but here goes!
It’s available in two sizes: Standard and Full Body/Gripped. The latter is for taller cameras, but they both have the same size base. Both are made up of two pieces that can be separated using the provided Toolz, which means that storage is optimized if you need to break it up to fit into a tight space. There are two 1/4″-20 female threads on the vertical piece so you can attach items to it, such as a camera sling, microphone, or anything with a 1/4″-20 male thread. The side piece is detachable so that it can be reversed, allowing access to ports and connections on a variety of cameras.
The plates will mount to a 3 Legged Thing Airhed, or to any Arca-Swiss compatible clamp on your ballhead in either orientation, which is why this item is necessary in most photographers’ gear. In a world where it’s tough to balance the importance of tall versus wide photos, particularly when shooting for social media where tall photos always win, it’s important that we can quickly switch between the two. Doing so with a QR11 makes it so simple it can be done in seconds with minimal variation to the perspective, and no hindrance to the weight distribution of the camera over the tripod.
The whole point of an L-bracket is to enable photographers to move easily between landscape and portrait orientation while maintaining the horizon line. Where a lot of L-brackets are simply a hunk of metal without a lot of thought having gone into them, the 3 Legged Thing QR11 2.0 seems to have been designed with careful consideration given to a photographer’s needs, including the newly added cut-out “notch” on the base plate that affords access to the pull-out LCD screens available on most new camera models. The thing that really sets it apart from competitors is the price point versus the build quality. The engineering and the thought that has gone into it is on point, and at around one third the cost of the nearest competition, it’s getting a solid 5 stars from me. ■
Hey Dave,
Great review. You touched on all the points that I like about this item. I own two and love them.
One thing to add for those of us that are big fans of the Peak Design Capture clip. 3-Legged-Thing is the only alternative — that I know of — where you can have an L-place and still be able to use it with your capture clip. There is a version of this L-place that has the capture clip plate built onto the bottom. Some people might find this information useful. It’s called “3 Legged Thing Ellie PD Universal L-Bracket for Peak Design Capture v3”